R.S. Thomas - "A Welsh Testament"

[kementari2.livejournal.com]

All right, I was Welsh. Does it matter?
I spoke a tongue that was passed on
To me in the place I happened to be,
A place huddled between grey walls
Of cloud for at least half the year.
My word for heaven was not yours.
The word for hell had a sharp edge
Put on it by the hand of the wind
Honing, honing with a shrill sound
Day and night. Nothing that Glyn Dwr
Knew was armour against the rain's
Missiles. What was descent from him?

Even God had a Welsh name:
He spoke to him in the old language;
He was to have a peculiar care
For the Welsh people. History showed us
He was too big to be nailed to the wall
Of a stone chapel, yet still we crammed him
Between the boards of a black book.

Yet men sought us despite this.
My high cheek-bones, my length of skull
Drew them as to a rare portrait
By a dead master. I saw them stare
From their long cars, as I passed knee-deep
In ewes and wethers. I saw them stand
By the thorn hedges, watching me string
The far flocks on a shrill whistle.
And always there was their eyes; strong
Pressure on me: You are Welsh, they said;
Speak to us so; keep your fields free
Of the smell of petrol, the loud roar
Of hot tractors; we must have peace
And quietness.

Is a museum
Peace? I asked. Am I the keeper
Of the heart's relics, blowing the dust
In my own eyes? I am a man;
I never wanted the drab role
Life assigned me, an actor playing
To the past's audience upon a stage
Of earth and stone; the absurd label
Of birth, of race hanging askew
About my shoulders. I was in prison
Until you came; your voice was a key
Turning in the enormous lock
Of hopelessness. Did the door open
To let me out or yourselves in?

Comments

[kementari2.livejournal.com]

An important voice in the dialog about globalisation, certainly.

(and more than anything, an awesome poem)

[42shadesofgray.livejournal.com]

And an important voice in the dialogue about the place of Welsh culture in Britain.

Have you read How Green Was My Valley?

[kementari2.livejournal.com]

Nope, I haven't.

[42shadesofgray.livejournal.com]

It's about a boy growing up in Wales during the early 1900's. It's really good. But what brought it to mind was the part where the English teachers looked down on the Welsh students they were teaching and wouldn't let them speak Welsh at school - it's a wonder the language survived at all, with the Welsh being quite nearly forced to assimilate.

[maymorning.livejournal.com]

I live in Wales. I'm English, but I do have some Welsh blood and after 11 years here, I reckon I'm Welsh by adoption. I'm even learning to speak Welsh. (Got to go to class in an hour.) That's a lovely poem, but it's more complicated than RS Thomas says. Everyone in England was Welsh originally. It's still there, buried deep under Saxons and Normans and Romans and other invaders, but some of us still remember. Even the Welsh he speaks of were invaders who pushed another race out. Though I do agree, I hate that Wales is seen as one big theme park. Or that other people think that Wales is nothing more than a county.

Cymru am byth!

[kementari2.livejournal.com]

Hm yes, last semester I took a class in Old English, and we read some of St. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. He talked a lot about the "original" Britons, who have survived as the Welsh (if I remember it correctly).

[42shadesofgray.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for Wales!

I'm in the States and am trying to teach myself Welsh... it's progressing very slowly, unfortunately, as I have no one to talk to and am rather busy with schoolwork. I do know that your username is very pretty and means "stars," though. : )